Unseen Passengers: What’s really with you when you drive?

Brittany Schlorff, Department of Biology, York College

Introduction▪Car air filters, usually made of fleece

and activated charcoal (Vonberg et al., 2010), are used to prevent airborne microbials and particles from entering the cabin; however, not every filter is the same.

▪These microbials can be classified by determining whether they have septate hyphae (ascomycetes) or aseptate hyphae (zygomycetes); however, ascomycetes are more commonly found than zygomycetes.

▪Once divided, further classification of ascomycetes leads to the identification of conidia, blastoconidia, chlamydospores, arthrospores or sporangiospores (Tortora, 2004).

▪These fungi can lead to allergies, respiratory illnesses and distresses if exposed to humans.

▪There has been progress toward determining if fungal colonization in air conditioning units leads to fungal hypersensitivities. This knowledge can lead to better treatment and prevention procedures (Simmons et al., 1997).

▪Further work in this field can lead to possible economic influences as well as an impact on human health interests when purchasing a vehicle.

Acquire filters from Jiffy Lube and car

dealerships in York, PA

Measure, weigh and take pictures of

filters

Swab each filter in 4 different areas

Take each swab to start 2 streak plates for each swabbed

area

Incubate 1 plate per swab at room temperature

Incubate 1 plate per swab at 37 OC

Identify the microbes found on

each plate

Objectives▪ To determine the identity of fungal

spores present on 6 different filters.

▪ Compare the filters from different cars to determine any difference between the makes of the cars.

Conclusions▪ No clear link can be made between

make of the car and the prevalence of identified microbes.

▪ Determination of the most effective car and filter cannot be made, although the Cadillac and Chevrolet seemed to capture the smallest variety of microbes.

AcknowledgementsCarolyn Mathur, YCP Research Mentor

Bridgette Hagerty, YCP Biology DepartmentDavid Singleton, YCP Biology Department

Literature CitedSimmons, R.B., Noble, J.A., Rose, L., Price, D.L., Crow, S.A. and D.G. Ahearn. 1997. Fungal colonization of automobile air conditioning systems. Journal of Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology 19:150-153

Tortora, G., Funke B. and C. Case. 2004. Microbiology: An Introduction. 8th ed. Pearson Education Inc, San Francisco, CA

Vonberg, R.P., Gastmeier, P., Kenneweg, B., Holdack-Janssen, H., Sohr, D. and I.F. Chaberny. 2010. The microbiological quality of air improves when using air conditioning systems in cars. BMC Infectious Diseases 10:146-152

Sample Number Car Make

Fungal Spore Classification

Arthrospores

Blastoconidia

Chlamydospores

Conidia

Sporangiospores

Zygomycetes

1 Subaru X X X

3Acura(n=2)

X X X

4 Toyota X X X

5 Cadillac X X

6 Chevrolet X X

Arthr

ospo

re

Blast

ocon

idia

Chlam

ydos

pore

Conid

ia

Spor

angi

ospo

re0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

Prevalence of Various Fungal Spores in Cabin Air

Filters

Classification of Spores

Nu

mb

er

of

Fil

ters

wit

h

Sp

ore

s P

resen

t

Comparison of Car Make and Fungal Spores Captured by the

Filter

Table 1. Microbes present (X) in the 6 filter samples collected. The comparison between car make and classification of microbes trapped can be observed.

Figure 3. The number of filters that contained each of the 5 identified ascomycetes. Based on the graph, arthrospores and chlamydospores were found in 4 filters each, blastoconidia was found in 3 filters, conidia was found in one filter and sporangiospores were not found in the samples collected. Each of these is known to cause, or be a precursor for, some illness or disease.

Figure 4a: Below (left). An example of a blastoconidia observed when using the microscope to identify a microbial colony found on a streak plate. Figure 4b (right). This is also an example of an ascomycete and is identified as an arthrospore.

Methods▪Filters were stored in a refrigerator to

maintain microbial longevity.

▪After 5 days, samples were analyzed for microbial colony growth.

Figure 1. The flowchart of procedures used to collect and incubate samples. These procedures were determined after initial experiments were conducted to find an efficient protocol.

Results▪The filter taken from the Subaru, Acura,

and the Toyota captured 3 different spores. The Cadillac and the Chevrolet captured 2 different fungal spores (Table 1).

▪Arthrospores and chlamydospores were found in the most filters followed by blastoconidia, conidia and sporangiospores respectively (Figure 3).

▪Successful pictures were taken of the fungal spores collected in the various filters (Figures 2 and 4).

An example of a cabin air filter used in this experiment

Left and Right: Pictures of colonies grown from plating the various car cabin filters

Figure 2a: Below (left). An example of a blastoconidia observed when using the microscope. Figure 2b (right). This is also an example of an ascomycete and is identified as a chlamydospore.